Farm 1933

Prudence Heward made this painting called Farm, we don’t know exactly when, using a pretty muted palette, but with some really juicy impasto. There’s something so solid and sturdy about this scene – the way the buildings are rendered with simplified shapes and thick paint gives them a real presence. The texture of the paint is really important here – Heward doesn’t try to hide her brushstrokes, but lets them build up on the surface to create a tactile quality. Look at the clouds, for example, and how each stroke is visible, giving them a sense of weight and volume. Then see the worker in the field. They are almost absorbed by the scene, becoming one with the landscape. It reminds me a bit of some of those Group of Seven paintings, but with a more grounded, human touch. Heward brings a modernist sensibility to a traditional subject, and in doing so, opens up new ways of seeing and experiencing the world around us.